Basics of Digital Influencing, and Tips to Become a Professional Influencer
Digital influencing is one of the latest entrants into the fold of marketing. Marketing involves influencing consumers’ opinion about a product or service in order to drive them to purchase. Since it is directly related to consumers, marketing is one of those fields that continuously evolve with the changing technology landscape and emerging trends. Marketers have to come up with innovative ways to tap into consumers’ behavior – directly and/or indirectly. Social influencing can be considered one of the indirect marketing techniques.
What is digital influencing, and who are digital influencers?
Social influencing is originally about leveraging the power influential social media users to drive certain results. Over the last decade, social networking has turned out to be one of the most dominant and impactful activity in the digital world. Today, people use social media for almost all types of communication. Users’ circles are not limited to just their family members, friends and neighbors. They connect with people who they may not have met, may not meet in person. However, yet they take interest in interacting and engaging with them. It is notable that social media users with very large circles of followers are not all celebrities from sports or film industry.
Actors, actresses, sports personalities are obviously poplar on social media, but that it is understandable because they do things that millions see and follow religiously. The question therefore is: why do those who are not from such traditionally popular industries have huge number of followers? What do they do that so many users follow them on various digital channels? The answer is that firstly they are immensely interested in socializing digitally, and love to share their thoughts, knowledge and experiences.
Certainly, that may deem true for millions of other social media users as well. True that not all those who love to spend time on some or the other social platform are influencers. That is where the difference lies. Digital influence is directly proportional to expertise. In order to influence others with posts and comments on social media, users have to develop identify their area of interest and then specialize in one or some aspect of it.
For instance, Lauren Bath, who is a chef-turned-digital influencer with more than 200,000 followers. She harnessed her interest in travelling to become one of the earliest digital influencers. Users who realize their interest and work towards nurturing it, all the while remaining socially connected and active, increase their potential of becoming a digital influencer significantly. It must be understood here that digital influencing is not limited to only travelling, food, lifestyle, and similar domains. Even geeks and nerds can be digital influencers. Whoever garners a huge number of followers because of the experiences and knowledge that he/she shares becomes a social influencer. A point to be clarified here is that there is no stipulated number of followers that a user has to garner to become a digital influencer. The number varies depending upon the domain in which the influencer deals.
Who are Professional Digital Influencers?
Now that digital influencing is understood, understanding who a professional digital influencer is becomes easy. A social media user who leverages his/her circle of followers for livelihood is a professional digital media influencer. Now the question that may strike readers’ mind is: how can one leverage his/her social influence to earn a living? It is an indirect process. When a user becomes socially influential – meaning that his/her opinion impact the decision of many – brands become interested in that user. They want to leverage the social influence of the person to promote their offerings. As the user signs a deal with a brand, his/her journey as a professional digital influencer begins.
However, professional digital influencers are different from brand ambassadors. Digital influencing is (or, should be) completely organic. Unlike brand promotions, for which celebrities are paid to endorse certain products and services, digital influencing involves sharing the real experience of using that product or service. Digital influencers do not endorse a product on the basis of the payment they would receive in lieu of it. Companies usually pay digital influencers to experience their offerings and then share the opinion with their followers.
Some basic tips
Domain selection: The most important thing is to choose the domain to gain expertise and authority in it. A frequent traveler can be social influencer, and so can be a voracious reader.
Platform selection: Since digital influencing is to hold the authority in a particular subject, it is preferable to focus on a specific platform initially. Certain social platforms are more suitable for certain type of engagement than others. For instance, a Pinterest cannot be a Twitter, and vice versa is also true. Depending upon which niche a digital influencer deals in, he or she can extend the reach to other platforms as the confidence and demand grows.
Diligence: Being a digital influencer is about staying digitally connected always. Unlike 9-5 jobs, there is no scope to switch off the system and leave for the day. Digital influencers have to post regularly, though not excessively, and engage in conversations that their posts generate.
Conclusion
This is a simple explanation of what digital influencing is and who influencers are. However, as the paradigms of technology, and the way people use it, change the definitions and understanding of such concepts and practices will evolve too.
